Heinrich Wild
Encyclopedia
Heinrich Wild in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, December 26, 1951) was a Swiss inventor, designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
and founder
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
of Wild Heerbrugg
Wild Heerbrugg
The Wild company was founded in 1921 in Switzerland. The company manufactured different optical instruments, such as Surveying instruments, microscopes and instruments for photogrammetry among others...
.
With 15 years he stepped into apprentice with the engineer Legler in Glarus
Glarus
Glarus is the capital of the Canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Glarus municipality since 1 January 2011 incorporates the former municipalities of Ennenda, Netstal and Riedern....
(hydraulic engineer for the river Linth). He bought a small theodolite
Theodolite
A theodolite is a precision instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes. Theodolites are mainly used for surveying applications, and have been adapted for specialized purposes in fields like metrology and rocket launch technology...
and took thereby after short time independently expanded measurements of the flow of the river Linth.
Later he joined the Geometerschule (geometer school) at Winterthur
Winterthur
Winterthur is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. It has the country's sixth largest population with an estimate of more than 100,000 people. In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated to Winti...
and came 1899 as a trainee to the Landestopographie (Swisstopo
Swisstopo
Swisstopo is the official name for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography , Switzerland's national mapping agency.The current pseudo-English name was made official in 2002...
is the common name for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
) in Bern.
Due to his bad experiences with the high mountain triangulation with a theodolite
Theodolite
A theodolite is a precision instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes. Theodolites are mainly used for surveying applications, and have been adapted for specialized purposes in fields like metrology and rocket launch technology...
of conventional design he already tried 1905 to design a new theodolite
Theodolite
A theodolite is a precision instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes. Theodolites are mainly used for surveying applications, and have been adapted for specialized purposes in fields like metrology and rocket launch technology...
with rotable circle with coincidence circle-readings.
In 1907 he left the Landestopographie and moved to Jena
Jena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to the company Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss was a German maker of optical instruments commonly known for the company he founded, Carl Zeiss Jena . Zeiss made contributions to lens manufacturing that have aided the modern production of lenses...
to build up a new department for producing geodetic instruments.
He began with the development of levelling instruments and designed later also a new theodolite, the Th I.
In the year 1921 Wild returned to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and founded with Dr. R. Helbling, who operated a measurement office, and with the politician Jacob Schmidheini an own company with the name "Heinrich Wild, Werkstätte für Feinmechanik und Optik" (later known as Wild Heerbrugg
Wild Heerbrugg
The Wild company was founded in 1921 in Switzerland. The company manufactured different optical instruments, such as Surveying instruments, microscopes and instruments for photogrammetry among others...
, Leica Geosystems
Leica Geosystems
Leica Geosystems based in eastern Switzerland produces products and systems for surveying and geographical measurement...
, Leica Microsystems
Leica Microsystems
Leica Microsystems GmbH is a leading global manufacturer of optical microscopes, equipment for the preparation of microscopic specimens and related products. There are ten plants in eight countries with distribution partners in over 100 countries...
, Leica Camera))
At this time he developed the famous universal theodolite Wild T2, the precision theodolite Wild T3 and also the stereo autograph Wild A1 for aerial photo interpretation, beside a number of other measurement instruments.
It may be perhaps typical for the inventor Wild that he worried little about the economical things of its company and this ended finally in the consequence that Wild separated 1932 even from its own company, in order to be able to work as a freelance technical designer and inventor. Up to its death in 1951 he designed the legendary DK1, DKM1, DM2, DKM2, and DKM3 for Kern & Co, Aarau besides other things.